Server Balance, Server Health, and the possibility of Incentive/Reward

WoW Classic Cataclysm Classic Discussion
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In a thread just posted by Mispeled: [Classic] Discussion following Live Chat with Devs

We just now got an inkling about server balance and hopes of action finally being taken.

Server/Faction balance

Another big topic of the live chat was regarding server and faction balance. The proposal for a large bonus to the underdog faction on a server was presented as well as the potential for a larger bonus to both factions if a server became balanced.

The question of server transfer pricing was asked and the provided answer was that there would be free transfers offered similar to the current free transfers we have right now.

Edit: Correction, what free transfers were since they aren’t available right now

The overall sentiment seems to be a willingness to find a solution to the server/faction balance issue.

I, and many others, would like to press the issue, that yes, this is what we need. An incentive to keep servers balanced and alive.

PvE servers can also benefit from this just by seeing more life in the world, or those fun interactions where an opposite faction helps you a bit of the way. And even then, a PvE server’s faction should not end up a ghost town where they can no longer find activities, groups, friends, or guilds. It is an MMO, after all.

For PvP servers, this is crucial. We need that balance, not only for fun WPVP, but to prevent the gross abuse of server imbalance. Anyone who calls 20-30% faction or worse getting grief “WPVP” is smoking the bad stuff.

You have seen Classic and The Burning Crusade. You have seen Vanilla Phase 2 absurd chaos, you now know we majority of adults with income, and many will transfer for the least resistance.

You have the protect the players from themselves, because if you let them run inhibited, you get the ‘servers’ you see today.

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the reason factions all stack up on 1 server is that they want the chance to form groups. Adding RDF would solve this.

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From what I hear, it makes grouping harder, because now you’re DPS#5,000 and they can pick who they please.

But this is a balance thread.

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Not necessarily true. The same thing eventually happened in retail as well even with RDF and LFR

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I responded to it without mentioning LFD because that’s the obvious still solution.

Honestly? Sitting here trying to find other half-a ideas on how to save people from dead realms is pointless.
We have a deal that works but they refuse to use it.

As for Server/Faction : The issue with WPvP is that no one likes to lose, so they bounce. One side starts dominating and you get folks leaving in droves so you see the scale tips and you get a PvE server.
These faction imbalances, imo, are player caused…BUT!

What might help that is cutting more servers off.
There aren’t millions of players on here we don’t need 20 servers, we don’t even need 10.

Blizzard just greedy and wants to sell boost and transfers. They know what to do, we know what they should do. They’re just sitting in the office trying to make ways to make everyone miserable.

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My suggestion to making servers “balanced” again would be to eliminate layering entirely. Megaservers would be a S-show. Questing, trade resource competing, potential lag, all of it would drive people to go elsewhere.

It wouldn’t entirely solve the problem but it would help.

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No it’s because nobody likes world pvp in a non-winning faction, and people want more option for raiding which is nothing to do with dungeons.

Many people hate world pvp and go to these servers because friends are there.

Only way to fix this is WAR MODE.

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No thank you.

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They should go to PvE servers then and /flag themselves.

A PvP labeled server should be treated as such. If it is not their cup of tea they can move to PvE where its more their speed.

Grobbulus is the last 50/50 server, our past pushes for balance have worked thus far but I know its not something we can do forever.

Firemaw EU (I believe that was the last 50/50 EU one) is now a mess.

There is no harm in coding in server incentives for balance and health. I know folks are frustrated over RDF but thats a separate battle.

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I agree with this but I’m not trying to go ahead of the game here lol.

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I’m generally pro-RDF, and agree it resolves a few of the current server size and imbalance issues (access to dungeons) that might juuuust be enough to keep those smaller communities together through Wrath.

But it does nothing about world pvp, certain quests like HFP towers, access to materials via AH, access to raids, etc.

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This, 100%

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Cross faction (that don’t suck) or cross realm AH could help smaller realms or imba realms with resource issues, but like RDF would only be another band-aid.

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I debated whether to weigh in, but I actually feel the same about the solutions that were mentioned (see quote below) as I feel about RFD.

They’ll be a nice bonus and will help some who plan to stick out, but they don’t really cover the full scope of quality of life issues that come from being in any micro population. There is definitely gear you can buy with honor and badges, but there are plenty of things you can’t.

Had they created these incentives 12 months ago, it might have changed the dynamic of population flows somewhat, but at this point it feels like a bit too little, and definitely too late.

"Some things mentioned as bonuses were increased honor, loot bags, and badges.

One key thing to add is that it was specified that the bonus for having a balanced server would be bigger than bonuses for being on the minority faction, and would apply to both factions, to incentivize balance more than minority factions.

This would also be tested slowly, and likely not on any of the biggest realms initially."

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I definitely feel like they saw Vanilla Classic go down and just covered their ears and eyes to it all. :see_no_evil: :hear_no_evil: :speak_no_evil:

Why didn’t they try to save TBC? I want to be hopeful and say they weren’t doing it for the transfer money. I want to.

Now they see TBC and SoM servers, and what they became. Wrath is a big favorite, and it does look like they’re trying to carve Classic releases down a different path to keep that feel… So I feel this is their last chance to do anything, going forward.

They need to impliment it with prepatch, so Fresh Servers can have what we could not. And hopefully, in time, with enough incentives/tweaks, the servers can get back on track.

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Yeah, that’s a good point. It might actually help to do something like this on Fresh servers, I was thinking mostly of existing servers.

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Throughout Classic’s lifetime, the casual application of transfers to address realm population issues has been the ‘fishing with sticks of dynamite’ approach. It should be self-evident at this point that transfers are too destructive a tool for use as anything but a last resort to move player characters off a realm being permanently closed. After witnessing the track record of ‘success’ transfers have had with resolving realm populations, it is the definition of madness to expect this continued course of action to produce anything but more fractured communities.

Realm connections are a much healtier option for solving these problems but require a more involved participation on the part of the devs.

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Transfers currently have a messy history because there are zero restrictions. No caps. No queues. Not even faction queues.

Of course, why restrict money?

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They want balance? Merge Pagle and Mankrik for starters. Bang, populated and balanced on both sides. There’s ZERO need for both of the servers to exist. Combine them.

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Showering players with rewards is not a good precedant, the notion of dungeon griding giving me stacks of saronite/herbs for merely breathing in the direction of enemy mobs is a slippery slope to retail.

Im extremely dissapointed in that the server transfer fee and 6 month late free transfers is staying the same and they have no plans to adjust the system. Stop finding excuses for the transfer fee and killing servers, locking peoples time and effort between an additional 25$ is bollocks.

I have 3 server deaths under my belt and everytime we server transferred or guild merged, 30%-40% of the players atleast 8 people in every instance stopped playing with zero interest in coming back due to their disgust with hearing we hear you but we still raided when only 3 guilds existed on arcanite reaper. We tried being the last two but there was no chance we couldve opened the gates in any amount of time.